Maine state secretary to discuss role in defunct Trump panel

February 25, 2018

LEWISTON, Maine (AP) — Maine’s secretary of state will appear at a Bates College event this week to talk about his involvement in President Donald Trump’s much-debated and now defunct voter fraud commission.

Secretary of State Matt Dunlap was a vocal critic of the commission and filed a lawsuit in November contending it violated the Federal Advisory Committees Act. He’s scheduled to appear at Bates on Wednesday during an event sponsored by the college’s Harward Center.

Trump has blamed “millions of people who voted illegally” as the reason he lost the popular vote in the 2016 election, and he has failed to provide evidence for that claim. His voter fraud commission has been disbanded. It also attracted criticism from voting rights advocates as furthering the unsubstantiated claim.